CITY OF THE SILENT: A Review

Magnolia Cemetery is one of the greatest unknown treasures in Charleston, South Carolina. Hopefully, this book will help spread the word. For years, I've been hearing about this manuscript. People waxing enthusiastically about "this manuscript Ted has about Magnolia." They kept promising it was going to dig up some dirt of those buried there (pun intended). I even ran into a couple of people who had a copy of it and promised to let me read it ... to no avail.

I met Ted once in passing, through a mutual friend - it was a mere introduction, "hello", "how are you?" and it was over. That day, he was suffering some effects of the HIV that would ultimately be the cause of his demise. Within a year he was gone, so I never had the chance to discuss this work with him.

I have spent many pleasant hours wandering beneath the oaks and Spanish moss and taking hundreds of photos. Magnolia is thoroughly Southern (and soooo Charleston), filled with Gothic flourishes and amazing history is etched on the headstones. When tourists ask me what is the one thing to see in Charleston my answer is always "Magnolia Cemetery."

City of the Silent is a simple book - several hundred concise bios of some of the notables buried in the cemetery. If you're a Charleston history neophyte, you will learn some interesting stuff. There is a preponderance of Civil War figures (of course!), politicians, writers of questionable importance, society belles, gangsters, lawyers, and one madam. One. So much for the dirt.

If you're a Charleston history nut (guilty) ... you already know most of this stuff. So I was (and I am) a bit disappointed with the info contained within - most of it is already available in published form in one book or another.

However, the book is worth it's hefty cover price (well, almost) for the map of the cemetery and the locations of everyone mentioned. With this book in hand, and the map you can take a stroll and find the graves and read the stories. And that is what you should do with it. Read it, mark your favorite people (see my list below) and then take a trip to Magnolia Cemetery and spend an afternoon in the tranquil presence of history - scoundrels and heroines - and everything in between.



MY LIST OF FAVORITE PEOPLE IN MAGNOLIA CEMETERY

• Daisy Breaux Calhoun - real name: Margaret Rose Anthony Julia Josephine Catherine Cornelia Donovan O'Donovan Simonds Gummere Calhoun. (I'm not joking.)
• Langdon Cheves, Jr. - father of the Confederate Air Force.
• Susan Pringle Frost - patron saint of Charleston preservationists.
• Frank Hogan - bootlegger, murder victim.
• Leon Dunlap - bootlegger, acquitted murderer.
• The Crew of the H.L. Hunley - Confederate submariners.
• Tristam Tupper Hyde - Charleston mayor who enforced Prohibition. (served one term)
• Thomas McDow - doctor and murderer.
• Josephine Pinckney - the best Charleston writer and period - period! Two classics: Three O'Clock Dinner, a superb comedy of society manners and Great Mischief, a delicious little horror book where the entrance to hell is somewhere around the corner of King and Broad Streets.
• Robert Barnwell Rhett - Secessionist firebrand and newspaper editor.
• George Trenholm - Confederate financier, and model for Rhett Butler.
• Julius Waties and Elizabeth Waring - probably my all time favorite Charleston story. If you want to know the story ... buy this book, or pick up of my own modest books about Charleston, Wicked Charleston, Volume II: Prostitutes, Politics & Prohibition. The story of the judge and his second wife is covered in great detail.

BIBILO SAYS: 4. Worth having on your shelf.

WEREWOLF SMACKDOWN: A Review

In his latest adventure, Felix Gomez, private detective and vampire, arrives in Charleston, SC
to help thwart a werewolf civil war that threatens to expose The Secret to the world at large. The Secret being the existence of vampires, werewolves and other supernatural creatures. If you're familiar with Felix Gomez all this sounds perfectly plausible. If you're not ... then let's back up.

Felix Gomez went to Iraq as a soldier, returned as a vampire and became a private detective. His first case was to investigate the mysterious outbreak of nymphomania at the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant, detailed in The Nymphos of Rocky Flats. His subsequent adventures -X-Rated Bloodsuckers, The Undead Kama Sutra and Jailbait Zombie - read like a combination of Ann Rice, Robert B. Parker and Carl Hiaasen.

Author Mario Acevedo served in the U.S. Army and flew helicopters. In civilian life he taught art, wrote hard-boiled detective novels and collected a stack of rejection slips. Finally, in a bit of desperation, Acevedo decided to write a novel "about the wackiest thing I could think of. " That idea was the outbreak of nymphomania and Felix Gomez, vampire detective, was created. Five books later, Acevedo looks to have created his own niche in the recent avalanche of paranormal fiction.

Werewolf Smackdown details the turf war between rival werewolf clans in the South Carolina low country. For history buffs, bet you didn't know that Charleston was the site of the first werewolf settlement in colonial America, and that werewolf regiments served on both sides of the War Between the States.

As in all the Gomez books, the pace is furious and the attitude is breezy with more than a bit of tongue-in-cheekiness. Within his first twenty-four hours in the Holy City, Felix survives three attempts on his life and mixes it up with ghosts, werewolves, vampire hit men and creates an uneasy truce with the local vampire leader, a ghetto kingpin named Gullah. Oh, and he has plenty of sexy women (human and otherwise) at his disposal.

The pages in Smackdown disappear in big gulps. Acevedo cleverly writes this series so it feels like a high concept, glossy TV show, which would not be a bad idea. Given the success of the HBO's soft porn True Blood (based on Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels), Felix could become an X-Files meets 24 style action show. I'd watch it.

Visit the author's web site: MarioAcevedo.com

Biblio Says: 4. A fun read.